Friday, August 3, 2012

More Time to do what Exactly?

To say the CSM minutes published yesterday is a slog would be an understatement. In a world of action and reaction, most ongoing events tend to take on the aspect of a pendulum. It starts left or right of center and proceeds toward it. However, momentum being what it is the pendulum will shoot past that sweet spot and start climbing the other side. It takes a few swings to settle into place. That’s pretty much where we are I think with these minutes.

I applaud the CSM’s desire to be thorough and transparent. However, there is a fine line between transparency and overload. It’s easy to cross that line without meaning to. Fortunately you have bloggers to wade through 165 pages of minutia for you.

To that end, I skimmed through the entire minutes yesterday. This morning I read the section on Industry and Mining again. That is, of course, my area of interest. Here’s Perhaps the biggest item and comes out right at the top. “Job orders” run in “batch” mode is one of those changes that have been requested for as long as I’ve been a capsuleer (and longer no doubt.) If an industrialist has the means to build all or most of the components for an end product, they must currently manufacture each component as its own project. That is time consuming and laborious. Being able to place everything needed for something into the proverbial hopper and hit frappe would take the pain out of manufacturing very complex items for certain.

Then CCP Greyscale said the one thing I didn’t want to hear. He pointed out less time manufacturing gave more time for players to do other activities. Possible translation from the industrialist perspective: industry should not be a play style in and of itself. Now, to all you non-industrialists who just jumped up and shouted “damn straight!” I say sit down and STFU. I’m talking to the diehard industrialists here who would rather build things than blow them up. Something I don’t believe you are equipped by nature to understand. Why are you reading this blog again? Nevermind.

Anyway, this statement needs expounding. Do what other things CCP Greyscale? If you meant more time to manage our PI lines or more time to ring mine I’m all in. I hope that’s what you meant. If not, I’m calling you on it.

What I’m anxious about is the possibility this means “more time for players to pew-pew.” That relegates industry to not being a play style in and of itself, but merely another type of farming. If that’s true, it’s the worst possible thing that could happen for serious industrialists. By serious I mean those that only want to make things. It’s a rare breed for certain, but do we really deserve such marginalization? I was really starting to get depressed at this point.

Then Trebor saved the day – so to speak. His “think sink” idea is a good one. I rather like the idea of being a process engineer more than a production line button pusher. He just vindicated my decision to vote for him - twice. Hopefully his words did not fall on deaf ears. Allowing those who wish to integrate research, invention and production into a single optimized process enhances the life of the dedicated industrialist. As I’ve said before, all we want is to be rewarded for our hard work.

Eventually CCP Greyscale allayed most of my concerns when he wanted to focus more on how to give “a dedicated industrialist” an edge over the capsuleer who once in a while takes a pile of things and builds a ship. Now THAT’S what I’m taking about when I say I just want to be rewarded for my hard work!

I don’t have a grievance with making industry easier for the casual industrialist. Go ahead and do that. It makes sense. But at the same time, give those that are willing to work hard and ruin their eyesight staring at ginormous spreadsheets an opportunity to reap more profit for it. That’s the penultimate reward in the industrial game. It is the best reward CCP can give.

So you caught that I said penultimate and not ultimate reward eh? What’s the ultimate reward you want to know? It’s simple. The ultimate reward is knowing that the ship I just built will be taken out into the wilds of New Eden and used to sow mayhem and destruction. Not only does that mean I’ll have repeat customers, it also means I have an integral place in our capsuleer society. Let’s keep it that way.

2 comments:

I was very curious if anyone else would pick up on this. Nice job. I'm going to be writing a major tent-pole post on this next week. I found it VERY ironic that this CSM bragged that they represented every play style...

...and then apparently sat back cheerfully while every play style but two was ruthlessly pounded into the dirt as useless or unfun by this or that CCP dev.

I need to finish reading through the minutes, but I am getting increasingly concerned that high security space is not seen as a valid place in which to play EVE. This section did absolutely nothing to allay my concerns.